


Tears of Maple Red

by Northern_Lady



Category: Riverdale (TV 2017)
Genre: Abuse, Attempted Sexual Assault, Crying, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Families of Choice, Father Figures, Fluff, Gangs, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Prostitution, Rape, Trauma
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-01-28
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-10 18:08:36
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,026
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13506975
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Northern_Lady/pseuds/Northern_Lady
Summary: Cheryl Blossom's suffering is not at an end but maybe she will finally see a way out of it.





	1. Chapter 1

Creepy. Josie had called her creepy and Cheryl had hardly been able to stop crying ever since. Cheryl had suspected all along that Josie was only interested in men and that had been the whole reason she had been trying not to be too obvious about her crush on her long time friend. Cheryl had told herself that it was only a crush. That it didn’t matter how Josie felt. That they would always still be friends. Until today when Josie found one of Chery’s drawings and had called her creepy. Cheryl had tried to explain and Josie had freaked out. Mayor McCoy had heard some of the noise and gotten involved. The mayor had said Cheryl had an unhealthy obsession with Jose and told Cheryl not to associate with her daughter anymore until she got some therapy.

Cheryl had rushed home from Josie’s house and locked herself in her room, unable to make the tears end. Mother didn’t come and check on her. That wasn’t something her mother ever did. In recent weeks her mother had been far less cold to Cheryl but she was still distant, always distant. More than an hour passed and Cheryl had very nearly cried herself to sleep when the sounds of drills and hammers outside brought her back to reality. Cheryl had forgotten that Mommy hired Fred Andrews to install a new deck and patio stones on the side entrance of Thistle Hall. 

Cheryl got up from where she had been curled up on her bed and forced herself down to the kitchen. All the crying had made her thirsty. Cheryl drank two glasses of water before she heard someone knocking on the side door. She went to answer the door without even thinking to wash her ruined makeup off her face or hide the fact that she had been crying. 

“Mr Andrews?” Cheryl said, on finding him on the other side of the door. 

If he was surprised at finding her in this state, he hid it well. “Is your mother around, Cheryl?”

Cheryl shook her head. “There’s a board meeting for Maple Farms tonight. She probably left…” Cheryl glanced at the clock on the wall, “...about ten minutes ago. Is there anything I can help you with?” 

“No, it can wait. I just wanted to find out what she wanted to do about that tree over there. She wanted the deck fifteen feet deep and that tree is seven inches too close for fifteen feet, but if she cut the deck short the tree would offer some pretty good shade. It would be a shame to cut it down.” Fred said. 

Cheryl looked out at the old oak tree. “It is a rather nice tree. In that case I imagine Mommy will want it gone.” 

Fred gave her a funny look and then nodded. “Well, I’ll not do any cutting just yet until I talk to her.” He took a step back as if to head back to his work, then stopped. “Are you alright Cheryl? I imagine things have been hard for you with all the recent losses for your family....” 

Cheryl tore her gaze from the oak tree in the distance and met his eyes. “No one ever asks me that,” she said, her voice breaking. 

“Maybe they should,” Fred said, “Because it doesn’t look to me like you’re okay.” 

Cheryl bit her lip in an effort to hold back her tears. She had cried enough that day already. She had cried enough in the past few months. She didn’t want to start up again now. “I’m not...I’m not okay.” Cheryl sobbed and burst into tears. She crossed her arms across herself almost protectively. “Jason was all I had. I have no one left I can talk to, no one who cares. It’s just really hard, always being so alone…” 

Fred sighed and shifted his weight uncomfortably, “Your mother must care, doesn’t she?” 

Cheryl sniffled. “She doesn’t. She told me she doesn’t care. She told me she wished should could send me to boarding school... Everyone, at school hates me and I’m just...alone…” Her jaw was trembling. It was the first time she had told anyone any of this and she had no idea why she was sharing it with Fred Andrews of all people. 

Fred looked sad at what she had just told him. He reached out and put a hand on her shoulder. “Cheryl, you don’t have to be alone.” 

She hadn’t really meant to, but Cheryl took a step closer and hugged Mr Andrews without really thinking it through. He was surprised for just a moment and then he hugged her in return. Cheryl stood there crying and hugging Mr Andrews for several minutes. When he finally let her go she felt better than she had in a long while. 

“Thank you,” she said quietly, unsure what had come over her to behave like that. 

Fred only nodded. “Look, if you’re feeling like you’re alone after this, just stop by the house. Archie has plenty of friends stopping by to visit. I know he’d be okay with adding you to the group and you’re always welcome.” He said stepping away. “I’ll check in with your mom about the deck tomorrow.” 

****************************

Cheryl couldn’t sleep that night. She couldn’t help but feel envious of Archie. He had a father who cared about him. She kept wondering if the feeling she had gotten hugging Mr Anderson was how it would feel to have a father who loved her. She knew that her own father had never liked her all that much. He had kept her distant and any affection he had shown had always been artificial, for the sake of guests and people watching. There had been no one watching that day. Fred Andrews had simply hugged her because she needed it. She wondered how many weeks or months or years it would be before someone would hug her like that again. 

She didn’t want to go to school the next day. Facing Josie but being unable to talk to her would be so hard. Josie was creeped out enough that she would avoid Cheryl and would tell her mother if Cheryl failed to keep her distance. Cheryl knew from experience that it would be no use asking Mommy to stay home from school. So she went to class anyway and put on her best smile and her most biting remarks and tried to pretend that everything was normal. 

Nothing was normal though. Jughead was back in school but he and Betty weren’t sitting together or even making googley eyes across the room. Archie and Veronica didn’t seem to be together anymore either. This meant that at lunch Archie sat with the football team. Veronica sat with Josie and the Pussycats, Jughead found a corner alone and Betty wasn’t even at lunch. She had apparently found some project to assist one of the teachers with and was skipping out on lunch. Cheryl didn’t know where to go except to sit with Jughead. She was pretty sure Jughead probably hated her but she could deal with hate. Hate was easier than fake friends. 

Cheryl took a deep breath, pasted on a smile, and crossed the room with confidence. She took a seat across from Jughead. He looked a little confused that she was sitting with him, then he looked almost defensive. 

“Don’t worry,” Cheryl said sweetly. “I’m not here to give any of my trademark mean girl insults. I just wanted to say welcome back to Riverdale High.” 

“Um...thanks Cheryl,” Jughead said, still unsure what to make of her behavior. 

“You must be glad to be back?” Cheryl went on. She had never really talked to Jughead before and was just trying to keep talking so that the silence wouldn’t become awkward. She just had to get through lunch, that was all, just lunch, she kept telling herself. 

“Not as glad as I thought I would be,” Jug said, picking at the food on his tray. 

Cheryl could already guess that his mood had something to do with his recent break up with Betty. “Well, at least you have you father back,” She said, just trying to offer something positive. 

“Yeah, I guess there is that,” Jug said but he didn’t sound the least bit happy about it. 

His attitude made Cheryl angry. Jughead had spent enough time defending his father’s actions that she knew he had to care about the man. And now that his father was home, Jug was acting like it didn’t even matter. “What’s the matter? Daddy tell you you’re grounded or something?” 

Jughead glared at her. “So much for being nice, Cheryl. That lasted almost two whole minutes.” 

“I wasn’t trying to be mean,” Cheryl argued. “It just didn’t sound like you were very happy to have your father home. At least your father is alive and available to irritate you.” 

Jughead looked sad and almost ashamed of himself at that. “Good point,” he said after a moment. “So is that why you came over here? To try to make me feel bad that my father is a living criminal?” 

“And mine is a dead criminal?” She asked, understanding what he was implying, 

Jughead shrugged. “He wasn’t a law abiding citizen and you know it.” 

“No he wasn’t,” Cheryl admitted. “He wasn’t even a nice person.” 

Jug looked a little surprised to hear that. All the antagonism he had been sitting there with, all the defensiveness left his posture and for once, instead of being angry with her, he seemed concerned about her. “So now it’s just you and your mom. The two of you must be close?” 

Cheryl opened her mouth to lie to Jughead. She was going to tell him that she and Mommy were very close. That it was so nice to have a supportive mother after all the tragedy but looking at him, so sad after getting his own father back, Cheryl realized that Jughead might be the only other person in this school who understood what it felt like to be alone. “I used to wish my mother and I were close.” She finally said, somberly. “But we aren’t and probably never will be.” 

“It can’t be that hopeless. I mean I have a little hope that my dad will stop drinking and keep his job long term. You must have some hope somewhere.” 

Cheryl swallowed. She hadn’t planned on having an open honest therapeutic conversation with Jughead Jones and wasn’t sure she wanted one. She was so tired of being alone, of hiding, that she decided that maybe she’d just be honest with him. Maybe it would help. “Well, I did convince her not to accept payment for keeping silent about what Nick St Claire did to me. She was gonna take the money and let him walk away. I’m not sure what made her change her mind...so maybe there’s a little hope.” 

“That’s messed up,” Jug said, a bit horrified. “My dad has his issues but he does what he can to protect me. Why would your mother…?” 

Cheryl glanced around the room just to be sure no one was paying any attention. “Because she doesn’t care about me. She said so.” 

“Cheryl I...I’m sorry.” Jug said. 

She shook her head. “Don’t be sorry. I’ll be fine. I always am.” 

Jughead shook his head. “I seem to remember you ending up in Sweetwater River because you weren’t fine.” 

She remembered that too. The memory brought tears to her eyes. She bit back her instinctive reaction which was to say something nasty to Jug. “You know what? I should go.” Cheryl moved to leave the lunch table.

“Cheryl wait?” Jug said and she sat back down. “Maybe you shouldn’t always run off alone. What are you doing tonight?”

“Cheerleading then homework,” she said. 

“Then come and hang out with us at Archie’s house?” 

Cheryl hesitated. “Thanks for the offer. I’ll think about it.” 

***********************************************************************************

 

That afternoon Cheryl found an excuse to go talk to Mr Andrews while he worked on her mother’s deck and patio project. He had two workers with him. Cheryl made three glasses of lemonade and brought them out to the work area. They accepted her refreshments and returned to work. Cheryl thought about staying longer, about asking questions about the project in spite of knowing that doing so would probably only annoy them. Her mother would be home soon and would probably lecture her about fraternizing with the help so Cheryl left them to do her homework. 

******************************************************************************

Cold. It was so cold on the ground that Cheryl had a fleeting thought that she might freeze to the ground if she stayed laying there much longer. She had neither the strength nor the will to get up. So she stayed there in the garden behind Thistlehouse, just sobbing and unable to even consider going back inside. After a long while, when Cheryl no longer had any tears left, she dragged herself to her feet and turned to face the back door. She didn’t want to go inside. If she went inside the house, HE would probably still be there. She knew she should probably go to a hospital rather than inside anyway, a hospital and then the police. In the end it wouldn’t matter though. If even she could get mother to press charges, if the courts ever found out what happened with Nick Saint Claire, no one would ever believe her. Everyone would believe she just wanted money, that nothing really happened. 

Cheryl took three steps closer to the back door, then stopped. She crossed her arms across herself in a feeble attempt to keep warm. She was still reeling. She couldn’t believe that mother had done this. The fact that mother wanted to throw herself at men for money was bad enough. Why had she needed to involve Cheryl in this disgusting business? The whole thing left her feeling sick and horrified and speechless. 

She stood there another ten minutes before it occurred to her panic addled brain to check the front driveway and see if his car was gone. Cautiously, Cheryl went around the house and took a look. Much to her relief the driveway was empty of cars. Mother was still gone as she had been all afternoon and Malachi was gone too. 

Cheryl opened the front door with shaking hands. At least it was warm in the house. As she passed by the kitchen some part of her mind registered how hungry she was but Cheryl ignored the hunger and continued on to her bedroom. All she could think of as she locked herself in her room were mother’s words earlier that day. “It’s time for you to do your part to earn your place in the family business,” Mother had said.

“What do you want me to do? Help harvest the maple syrup?” Cheryl had asked her, confused. “I thought Maple Farms didn’t really make enough without the drugs?” 

“It doesn’t. I’ve decided it’s time for things to go back to the way they used to be. I’m bored of entertaining the men of Riverdale. We’ve always been accustomed to a certain lifestyle, a certain level of comfort. The only way to get that back at this point, is for you to do your part.” Pennelope had said. 

Cheryl regarded her mother warily. She wasn’t sure what mother was talking about but she was sure that this was not going to be good, whatever it was. 

“There is a certain young man who just got out of prison who also happens to have the resources for Maple Farms to resume business as usual. He hasn’t agreed to be a business partner just yet. Can I trust you to make sure he does agree before the night is over?” 

“Mother, I’m not...are you saying what I think you’re saying?” Cheryl asked, horrified. “I am not gonna sell myself so you can get a new Sugarman!” 

“Stop being so dramatic. I’ve heard he is a quite a good looking young man. He’ll be here any minute. Just treat it like any other date.” 

“I don’t want a date and I don’t end my dates by sleeping with people!” Cheryl had shouted at her mother. “You can’t do this to me. It won’t work anyway. If Maple Farms were back in business the police aren’t stupid enough to not check for drugs. You’d get caught right away.” 

“That’s why we won’t start dealing right away,” Penelope said annoyed. “This is a long term project. You are to give this boy what he wants. It won’t be so difficult if you just relax and try to enjoy it.” 

“I won’t do it!” Cheryl protested. “I don’t want any part in any of this! I’ll tell the police what you’re doing to me and with the farm,” Cheryl threatened. 

“If you do that, you’ll be homeless. Who would take you in Cheryl? No one would want you. Hell, I don’t even want you. I tried to be nice, after that whole incident with the Saint Claire boy, I really tried, but it seems you’re as ungrateful as you ever were. That’s why none of your school friends would have you. You act like an ungrateful little snob at school every day and none of them like you. Even Josie only tolerates you because her mother told her to stay friends with the richest families in Riverdale. If I throw you out, no one will take you in. You’ll do what I say, and you’ll keep it a secret, or you’ll sleep in the snow tonight, Cheryl. Is that understood?” 

“Yes Mommy,” Cheryl had muttered, her jaw trembling, tears spilling down her face. 

A car had pulled into the drive and her mother had left her alone with Malachi. The rest of the evening had been a nightmare. Now that it was over, Cheryl stayed locked in her room trying not to think about any of it, trying not to cry. 

********************

“You’re wearing that to school?” Penelope Blossom said as Cheryl entered the dining room the next morning. 

Cheryl looked down at herself. She was dressed in rather ordinary black leggings, ballet flats, and a long red sweater. It was nothing like the short skirts and heels she typically wore. It was more like something Betty Cooper might have worn. “Why not?” Cheryl shrugged and sat down at the table, though not without pain. 

“Malachi will want you to wear something more attractive,” Penelope said. 

“What I wear at school has nothing to do with him.” 

“Actually it does. He just got out of jail remember. Now that Southside High is closed, Malachi will be completing his Senior year at Riverdale high. He’ll expect his new girlfriend to be well dressed.” 

“His…?” Cheryl’s mouth dropped open. 

“I told you this was a long term project. It’s already been arranged. The leader of the Ghoulies expects payment as well as certain privileges in exchange for his services. You will provide those services.” 

“What exactly did you agree I would do?” Cheryl asked, angry and anxious all at once. 

“That there would be certain physical privileges when he needs or desires them as well as having an escort to community events when he saw fit.” she said simply. 

“I can’t believe this…” Cheryl muttered choking back her tears. “Even if all that’s true, I don’t have to dress for him at school or even speak to him at school. I won’t.” 

“Yes Cheryl, you do have to.” 

“No.” she said firmly. “I don’t have to do any of this. You invited a monster into my home to rape me and threatened to throw me out on the street if I didn’t let him. I think I would rather be on the street than ever go through that again,” Cheryl got to her feet. She hadn’t eaten a bite. 

“Don’t you walk away from me Cheryl! If you walk out now then don’t expect the door to be unlocked when you get home.” 

Cheryl kept walking and didn’t look back. 

****************************

The school atmosphere was tense. Word had already gotten out that several of the Ghoulies had been released from jail. Jughead wasn’t exactly looking forward to meeting up with them. The first several classes passed by and Jug hadn’t seen any Ghoulies. Then as he was coming out of a class he saw three of them marching down the hallway like they owned the place. Malachai was front and center. 

“Jones,” he walked straight up to Jughead and all but got in his face. “You and me gotta talk.” 

It’s me you want to talk to,” Archie said from somewhere behind him. “I was the one who called the police. Not him.” 

“So you wanna take it outside or do this right here?” Malachai said. 

“No, one is taking anything anywhere,” The principal interrupted. He continued speaking, telling them the two groups should keep distant from each other if they couldn’t manage to keep from fighting, giving them all some lecture about new beginnings and consequences. Then he sent both groups of gang members off in opposite directions. 

It seemed as if the transition of two rival gangs attending the same school again was going rather smoothly after all. At lunch, Cheryl Blossom entered the lunch room. Jughead didn’t ordinarily pay that much attention to what Cheryl was up to but from where he was already seated, he could see that she was dressed far more conservatively than she usually did. She wasn’t wearing her usual fake smile either. Then Cheryl did something totally unexpected. She crossed the room and took a seat at Jug’s table in the empty seat right next to him. It was the second time in a week she had sat at his table.

“Uh, hi Cheryl,” Jughead said, a little confused. A few days ago he had been unwelcome to return to school and now she was sitting with him? 

“Hi Jughead,” she said, still not using her ordinarily cheery tone but a much more sad and subdued tone instead. 

Jughead ate a few bites of his food, waiting for Cheryl to spout out some insults or some rules that she was insisting upon for the school she seemed to believe she owned. She didn’t do any of that. Malachai entered the lunch room and Cheryl visibly tensed next to him. With a grin on his face, Malachai crossed the room and stopped next to Jug’s table right across from Cheryl. 

“It’s good to see you again, Cheryl,” Malachai said. “If I didn’t know better, I’d think you’ve been avoiding me all day.” 

Cheryl said nothing to that. No biting remarks, no sweetly thought out apologies, nothing. She didn’t even look at him. She kept her eyes on her hands. 

“You have been avoiding me, haven’t you?” Malachai said. 

Cheryl finally looked up at him. “You can’t sit here. Principal Weatherbee said so.”

Malachai shrugged, “He said if we can’t get along and I think we can get along just fine.” He sat down at the table without being invited, reached across and took Cheryl’s hand. 

She flinched and wrenched her hand away from him. “Don’t touch me,” she said and as she said it Jughead could see that she was visibly shaken. Her jaw was trembling and she was actually starting to cry. 

“You can’t sit here,” Jug spoke up. It wasn’t hard to figure out that Malachai had done something to Cheryl and she sought out the Serpents for protection. He was willing to give her that, especially when it was so easy to do. 

“Whatever man,” Malachai said and he left them, annoyed. 

“Are you okay?” Jug asked Cheryl. 

She nodded, still trembling. “Thank you,” 

“No problem. I don’t even like that guy anyway.” 

Cheryl nodded again. She was still looking at her hands, still struggling to hold back tears. 

“What happened, Cheryl?” Jughead asked her. He wasn’t sure he’d get an answer but he had to try. 

She burst into tears. “I can’t tell you here. I’m not sure I even can at all…” 

“After school then?” he asked, both concerned and curious. 

“Maybe...is it alright if I hang around you and your serpent friends today?” 

“Yeah, sure,” Jughead agreed. He wasn’t exactly happy about it but he was too nice to say no. 

For most of the rest of the day Cheryl wasn’t too far off. They didn’t share all the same classes but when they did have the same class, she kept close by. During the very last period of school that day, Cheryl was excused from class to use the bathroom. She had barely left the Serpents all day so he was pretty sure she hadn’t had a chance to go before then. Jug didn’t notice until ten minutes later that she wasn’t back. He got his own hall pass and went out to check on her. He came around a corner and found Cheryl and Malachi way down at the other end of the hall. Cheryl was pinned against the wall, Malachi was leaning all his weight against her. 

“I could scream,” she said, trying to pull away from him but there was nowhere to go. 

“You won’t scream though. Your mom made a deal. She promised you would hold up your end of that deal. If you want Mommy to continue to buy you those short skirts and red lipstick, you’re gonna have to do your part.” 

“I had no part in her deal,” Cheryl argued. “Let me go.” 

Malachi shoved her even harder into the wall, grinding against her as he did so. “Here’s the thing Red, I’m not just doing this for the money. I’m doing it for the reputation. In a couple of years Ghoulies will be the richest most badass gang around and to do that, I don’t just need the Maple Farms transportation, I need a real ho to keep me warm at night. I’m gonna get that one way or the other. So you can either do what your mommy told you to do, or you can wait until she kicks you out and when you’ve got no place to go, I’ll make you be my bitch anyway.” 

Cheryl made a sound that was something like a gasp or a sob and she tried to shove Mal away. Jughead had nearly reached them. “Hey!” he called out. 

Mal let Cheryl go and turned to Jug. “So it’s gonna be here?” 

Jug ignored the question. He didn’t care about having a showdown fight with Malachi. “Cheryl, come over here?” 

“She’s not going anywhere,” Mal said. “She belongs to the Ghoulies, to me. Her mother sold her to us.” 

“No one can sell a person,” Jug argued. “Cheryl doesn’t belong to anyone. Let her go.” 

“What is it with you coward? You never want to fight. Last time there was a territory dispute, you wanted a car race. This time, you want her, you gotta fight for her.” 

It was Jug who threw the first punch. 

************************************

It didn’t take long for people to start coming out of their classrooms to see what the noise was. Cheryl wasn’t really aware of who had joined the fight or who it was that broke it up. All she knew was that she was a dichotomy of conflicting emotions. There was the terror and revulsion from what Malachai had done to her, combined with the confusion over the fact that Jughead had chosen to fight for her. He didn’t have to come check on her in the first place and could have yelled for a teacher when he had found her. He hadn’t done either of those things. 

Cheryl was shaken out of her haze of emotions by principal Weatherbee’s voice. “I warned you, Jones. I warned you that there was to be no gang related activities or violence in my school. Clearly, you weren’t paying attention. Now I have no choice but to sus-” 

“It wasn’t gang related,” Cheryl spoke up before Weatherbee could finish. 

“What did you say Miss Blossom?” Weatherbee asked. 

“It wasn’t gang related. Malachi assaulted me. Jughead was making him stop,” Cheryl said. It wasn’t strictly the truth but it was close enough. 

Under those conditions, the principal was willing to let the incident go. He recommended that Cheryl talk to the police about what happened. The next thing Cheryl knew, Archie and Betty were helping Jughead with his new bruises. It was then that she realized that she wasn’t one of their friends, not really, and never had been. Sure, Jughead had helped her but it probably hadn’t been for her sake. It had probably been a lot more about gang rivalry than about her. She stood there and watched as Betty fussed over his injuries and Archie stood by looking worried and realized that she was still alone. The dismissal bell rang. Cheryl’s locker wasn’t far off. She went to it, grabbed her stuff and wandered out of the school. 

It wasn’t far to walk home. Cheryl was more than a little worried that mother wouldn’t let her in. She walked up the drive to Thistlehouse with as much confidence as she could muster. Mother was waiting for her at the door with a suitcase in her hand. 

“Mommy?” Cheryl stopped on the front steps to meet her mother in the doorway. 

“Did you think I was joking Cheryl?” Penelope said. “You’re not doing your part. You can’t stay here.” 

“How is this going to help you get what you want?” Cheryl said, “People are going to ask why you kicked me out. When I tell them, your whole plan for Maple Farms will be ruined. If you want to keep that secret, you have to let me stay.” 

“No one is going to believe you Cheryl. The story sounds too outrageous. No, the tale they’ll believe is that I kicked you out after you slept with a gang leader and took drugs against my wishes, all as a form of rebellion against a mother who wouldn’t buy you everything you wanted.” 

Cheryl took a step back. “That’s what you’re going to tell everyone?” 

Penelope replied by reaching out with the suitcase in her hand and thrusting it into her daughter’s arms. “Go.” 

Chery’ took the case and turned back down the driveway. She was blinded by her tears. She wasn’t really aware of where she was going. Not until she found herself standing in front of the houses of Betty Cooper and Archie Andrews. She wasn’t sure why she had wandered here. Archie’s garage door opened and he and Jughead came out to the sidewalk to talk to her. 

“Cheryl?” Archie said, concerned. 

Cheryl realized she probably looked like a mess. She still had her school backpack, and a suitcase, her makeup was streaked too. 

“Are you okay?” Jughead asked. 

No, she wasn’t okay. She just wanted to die. She wished Archie hadn’t saved her from Sweetwater River that day. Everything would be so much easier if she were dead. Betty was on her way out from her house now to see what was going on. 

“What’s with the suitcase, Cheryl?” Archie spoke up, still waiting for an explanation. 

“Mommy kicked me out,” Cheryl finally said. 

“Does it have something to do with what Malachi said? Your Mom wants to use Maple Farms and the Ghoulies to deal drugs again?” Jughead asked. 

“Yes,” Cheryl said quietly. “Yes, she does. She wanted to use me to help make it happen. I said no…” 

“Cheryl…” Betty put a hand on her shoulder. “Do you have some place to go? I can ask my parents. I think they’d let you stay.” 

“If not, my Dad would probably be okay if you stayed with us,” Archie added. “Don’t worry, you’ll have some place to go.” 

“It’s cold out here,” Betty said, taking her arm. “Come inside and we’ll figure this out. 

*******************************************************

Cheryl wasn’t entirely sure how the Coopers and the Andrews had come to the decision that she would stay at the Andrews house. She had been too listless and devastated to even listen to the conversation about her fate. Before she really knew what was going on, Cheryl found herself in the Andrews guestroom, an open suitcase on the bed, as she struggled to figure out where to put her things. It was a lot more mental effort putting clothes in drawers than it should have been. Cheryl simply couldn’t think clearly. She couldn’t understand what had happened. Why did her mom hate her? Why had she let Malachai rape her? Why did she kick her out? Why did Jason have to die? The only conclusion she could come to was that she, Cheryl, must be a horrible person. 

“Need any help with that?” Mr Andrews broke into her thoughts from the doorway. 

“I don’t know,” she started to cry for some inexplicable reason. “I don’t know where these things go…” she said, struggling to choke back the tears. 

Mr Andrews stepped into the room and put his hand on her shoulder. “You don’t have to put these things away right now. Just leave them in the suitcase until you’re ready.” 

His words were so different from what her own father might have said. Her father would have either ignored her tears entirely or told her to stop blubbering and be responsible. Empathy wasn’t something Clifford Blossom understood. 

“Thank you…” Cheryl whispered, realizing that she was crying again. 

“Archie told me about what happened with that gang leader Malachai,” Mr Andrews went on. “Seems to me you’ve been through a lot of traumatic events in the past few months. There’s a clinic over in Centerville that offers free counseling. I think it might do you good to have someone to talk to. I’ll take you there if you’re willing to go.” 

Cheryl nodded her agreement. It might be good to have someone to talk to, even if a therapist wasn’t exactly a friend. “Why are you being so good to me?” she sobbed. 

“Because Cheryl, you deserve to have a regular home where people care about you. If you stay here, no one is gonna ask you to do anything illegal or demeaning just to fit in or as a condition to stay. I’m not gonna treat you any differently than I treat my own son. I want you to do your homework and help around the house a bit but that’s it. That’s how it ought to be in regular families. Plus, if my son had been through all the stuff that you’ve suffered, I’d want him to get some professional help. That’s why I’m offering the same to you.” 

Jaw trembling, Cheryl took a step closer and hugged Mr Andrews. He returned her hug more quickly this time than he had the last time. And this time he wasn’t in any rush to leave. He just held her for several minutes while she sobbed uncontrollably. 

“Dad?” Archie said from the doorway. Jughead was standing behind him. Both of them looked worried. “Penelope Blossom is on the phone.”


	2. Chapter 2

Fred Andrews headed down the stairs to pick up the landline phone and talk to Penelope Blossom. 

“Archie!” He called up the stairs when he reached the bottom. “The trash is still full.” 

Archie rolled his eyes. “I’m on it Dad,” Archie said leaving Cheryl and Jughead alone. 

Cheryl wasn’t sure what to say to Jughead. He still had bruises from his fight with Malachi. She approached him a little shyly and touched the bruise on his cheekbone. “Thank you for what you did today. I know it was probably mostly about the gang, but thank you.” 

Jughead shook his head. “I’ve never liked Malachi but it wasn’t about that or about Ghoulies and Serpents. It was like I said, he doesn’t get to own you. That’s why I did it. If I needed to, I’d do it again.” 

“The only person who ever fought for me was Jason...I didn’t think anyone ever would again,” she said, a little amazed. 

“I remember that,” Jug said. “It was that football game when the quarterback from the other team wouldn’t stop harassing you. Jason followed him into the locker room and when they came out, that guy had a black eye. No one saw it happen but we all knew…he looked out for you. There’s no reason why other people can’t do that for you too. Like I said, I’d do it again.” 

“Me too,” Archie had returned to them from taking out the trash. “Cheryl, if someone was trying to hurt you and I knew about it, I wouldn’t let it happen. You could very easily have all the Serpents and the whole football team on your side if you ever needed them.” 

Cheryl was a little overwhelmed with what these boys were telling her. She hadn’t known she could have had their support or protection before now. “Why? Why would you do that? I say nasty things to everyone. I know it and you know it.” 

Archie shrugged. “We all have our flaws. It doesn’t mean we want to see anything bad happen to you.” 

They heard Fred’s footsteps coming up the stairs. He sighed as he stepped into the room with the three teenagers. “Well, I just spoke to your mother, Cheryl. Apparently Alice Cooper let her know where you’re staying. Penelope tried to give me some story about you running off with a gang leader and being on drugs. I told her I didn’t believe a word of it. I did however convince her to keep paying your cell phone bill and contribute to our household groceries here. She says she will consider letting you come home if you’ll be responsible. I told her I wouldn’t send my dog to live with her and that I would not do anything to encourage you to go back there.” 

“I can’t imagine mother was too happy about that,” Cheryl said. 

“No, she wasn’t. She raised her voice a bit, said a lot of things that I wouldn’t have expected out of a woman with a reputation for having some class, and then she hung up on me.” 

Cheryl didn’t know what to say. 

“Anyhow, it’s time to get started with supper. You staying Jughead?” Fred asked. 

“Yeah, my dad’s working late,” Jughead replied. 

“I’ll help with the cooking,” Cheryl offered. She had learned a thing or two about cooking in the months since her father died and the Blossom family hadn’t been made of money. 

“Sounds like a plan,” Fred said, and they all followed him down to the kitchen. 

*******************************************************

The next morning Cheryl felt sick to her stomach as she sat at the breakfast table with Archie and Fred Andrews and tried to eat her cereal. She couldn’t quell the nervousness and terror she felt at the idea of facing HIM again. Malachi would still be at school. She hadn’t told the police about what he’d done to her. The idiot Principal hadn’t expelled him. He would still be there and he would probably try to find some way to touch her again before the day was over. 

“Cheryl?” Archie took the milk jug out of her hands. She hadn’t been aware that her cereal bowl was full of milk and had overflowed onto the table and then the floor. 

“I’m sorry,” she said, grabbing some paper towels from the kitchen counter. She knocked her spoon to the floor in her efforts to wipe up the milk. She picked up the spoon from the floor with shaking hands but her hands were shaking so much that all her efforts to clean up the milk were only making it worse. 

“We got this, Cheryl,” Fred said, taking down a dish towel to wipe up the milk. “It’s okay Cheryl, just sit.” 

She collapsed into her chair and let them clean up her mess. She waited until the milk was gone and Mr Andrews was seated again before she finally asked the question that had been haunting her all morning. “Do I...do I have to go to school today Mr Andrews?” 

“Are you sick?” he asked, a little concerned. 

“No it’s just...Malachi will still be there...and after the story my mother told about me...everyone will be judging...mostly it’s just...just him…” Cheryl sputtered. And then she waited for the inevitable words telling her she had to go to school anyway. 

“That kid Malachi didn’t get kicked out of school after that incident yesterday?” Fred said, a bit outraged. 

“No,” Archie spoke up. “Weatherbee just let the whole thing go.” 

“I’m gonna be making some calls this morning,” Fred said. “The answer is no, Cheryl. You don’t have to go to school. In fact I don’t think you should go back to that school until that kid is expelled.” 

Cheryl couldn’t help it. She burst into tears. “Do you mean that?” 

“Of course I mean it,” Fred said kindly but a little confused. 

Archie regarded her thoughtfully for a moment before speaking up. “Cheryl got a perfect attendance award for the last two quarters, Dad. That means with all the stuff she’s been through this year, she didn’t miss any school.” 

“Mommy said I had to go. I begged her to let me stay home because it was too hard to keep pretending everything was fine. She told me she didn’t care and made me go anyway,” Cheryl told them. 

Fred shook his head with a sigh. “If people had known what was going on in the Blossom house…” He began to say and then went on. “You don’t have to go to school, Cheryl, and you don’t have to pretend you’re fine. I have to work today but you can stay in the house for the day or for a few days if you need some time to recover. Archie will bring your homework so you can still keep up in class.” 

“Thank you…” Cheryl breathed a sigh of relief. 

The Andrews men put their dirty dishes in the sink and started gathering up their stuff to leave for the day. Cheryl followed them to the front door to say goodbye. Once they were gone she locked all the doors to keep out any Ghoulies who might have learned where she was staying and then went up to her room, curled up under the covers, and went back to sleep.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Short and fluffy chapter ahead.

After three days away from school, her first therapy session with a female therapist in Centerville, and the news that Malachi had finally been expelled, Cheryl was given the green light by her counselor to return to school. Her time spent in the Andrews house had been helpful. Afternoons were spent with Archie and Jughead. In the evenings Fred Andrews joined them for supper. Sometimes they would just sit in the living room and watch TV after dinner. It was nice though. No one ever said anything mean to her and in all that time she managed to not make any scathing comments either, in spite of sometimes wanting to do so when she felt anxious. 

Archie walked alongside her on her first day back to school. Archie could tell she was nervous about being back and probably worried about how people would treat her after what her mother had told people about her. He couldn’t understand how Penelope Blossom could be so cruel to her own daughter. Over the past few days, Archie had started to feel protective of Cheryl. He’d never had a sister before but having her in his house was a little like having a sister. A little except that Cheryl had kissed him once and he hadn’t exactly forgotten about that. He was with Veronica now though and Cheryl didn’t need him to be interested in her like that, not that he was anyway. His Dad had said Cheryl needed stability. Being her friend was the important thing right now.

As they approached the school doors Cheryl stood a little taller, pulled her locks of red hair so they hung over her left shoulder, and marched into the school building like she owned the place. Archie could hardly believe the change that came over her. She was back to being mean girl Cheryl just like that. For the last three days in his house she had been somewhere between timid and overly nice. He had seen for himself how worried she was about returning to school even if she hadn’t said so outright. Looking at her now she seemed confident and snobbish and aloof. 

Before they had even gotten to their lockers someone from the Southside approached Cheryl. “So I heard Maple Farms is gonna be back in business soon. If I wanted to buy some syrup you’d be able to hook me up?” 

Cheryl turned and looked at the younger student with disgust. “Maple Farms serves a certain type of upper class clientele, not trailer trash. Get your drugs somewhere else.” she said and slammed her locker shut as the student all but scurried away. 

Three more times Cheryl was approached by students who vaguely and not so vaguely asked about drugs. Each time she dealt with them in the same manner, scathing disdain. It was only after they walked away, when Archie noticed her taking a breath to calm herself, that he realized it was all an act. Cheryl wasn’t actually as arrogant as she pretended to be. It was how she defended herself and how she hid her fears. She didn’t even actually have any drugs but rather than tell these kids that, she just made them believe they weren’t good enough for her drugs. It made perfect sense and at the same time it made him sad. 

***************************************************************************

Fred Andrews woke in the middle of the night to the sounds of a teenage girl crying. He got out of bed and put on a t-shirt with his flannel pants and went out into the hallway. Archie was already there standing outside of Cheryl’s door about to knock but looking unsure of himself. 

“Maybe she’d rather be alone,” Archie said, hesitant. 

“I don’t think so son. I think that girl has been left alone a little too much and that’s half the problem,” Fred went to the door and knocked lightly. 

“I’m okay,” Cheryl called out, her voice raw from crying. 

“Can we come in?” Fred said. 

“Okay,” Cheryl said, or more like sobbed. 

Fred and Archie went into the room and found Cheryl sitting at the edge of her bed with her feet on the floor. They each took a seat on both sides of her. 

“You have a nightmare?” Fred asked. 

She nodded in response. He didn’t have to ask what the nightmare was about. It could one one of several things that she had endured recently or all of them that were giving her these dreams. Even so, he knew he should probably ask anyway. 

“You wanna talk about it?”   
“It was about Malachi...and Jason...and my dad...just the usual stuff of nightmares,” Cheryl told them. 

“Well it’s 4AM,” Fred pointed out. “Early enough that we could watch a movie before school if you’ve got too much on your mind to sleep.” 

“Okay,” she agreed, and followed them downstairs wrapped up in the blanket from off her bed. Cheryl ended up seated in the center of the sofa with Archie and Fred on each side of her. She curled up in her blanket and sat hugging her knees and by 5:30AM when the movie was nearly over she had fallen back asleep with her head on Fred’s shoulder. 

“Remember when she came here and said that her claustrophobia acts up in small houses?” Fred asked Archie as Cheryl remained asleep. 

Archie nodded. “I think she only said that because she was afraid we wouldn’t like her or welcome her here.” 

“Yeah, she was pretty wrong about that,” Fred said. “I couldn’t imagine her not being here.” 

“Me either,” Archie agreed. “Me either.”


End file.
